TSGT Paul Edward Douglas

courtesy Des Phillipet

TSGT Paul Edward Douglas was born 23 Jul 1910 in Westfield, Massachusetts to Leon Edward and Mary Ellen (English) Douglas.  His father was a motorman on a streetcar.

In 1930 Paul had entered the service as was stationed in St. Louis, Missouri with Headquarters Company 6th Infantry.  In 1940 he was stationed at the Fort William Davis Military Reservation in the Panama Canal Zone.  

After the war began and being sent overseas Paul was transferred from the replacement depot to Service Company 116th Infantry on 5 Sep 1944.  On 2 Nov 1944 he was again transferred to B Company 116th Infantry.  He was killed in action on 18 Nov 1944.

TSGT Douglas is buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery.

CPT Maurice Francis McGrath

CPT Maurice Francis McGrath was born 2 Aug 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the 3rd of 4 children born to Thomas Edward Joseph and Sara Teresa (Wilhere) McGrath. His father worked as an electrical inspector and as a foreman for the Philadelphia Transit Authority. He reported a 1939 income of $2500 and they owned their home valued at $4000. In short, a financially successful family in the midst of the Great Depression. Maurice attended St. John's High School and LaSalle College (class of 1939). He was a student at Temple University Law School when he entered the Army.

Maurice entered Army service August 1941. After completing training including Officer training he was sent overseas and assigned to Service Company 116th Infantry. He was with that unit serving as regimental transportation officer for the D-Day landing on 6 Jun 1944. On 15 Jun 1944 he assumed command of Service Company. On 13 Jul 1944 he was transferred to I Company 116th Infantry to serve as the company commander.

1LT McGrath provided a 2-page account of his activities on 6 Jun 1944 to LTC S. L. A. Marshall. He was first wounded in the abdomen on 15 Jul 1944 and he was in England recovering for more than a month not returning to the regiment until 28 Aug 1944 when he was transferred from the replacement depot to L Company 116th Infantry to again serve as Company Commander.

A few weeks after D-Day, Maurice penned this poem:

Confusion

My brain is wracked, my spirit bent
I don't know where to turn
My scheme of life is all upset, rent,
Warped, distorted, left to burn,
Upon the shores of life's angry ocean.

Tossed into this new world reign
Of Terror,lonliness and greed that is blind
I wander aimlessly seeking in vain
Something to grasp; to hold; to find
A haven, a refuge free from commotion.

Oh confusion! A world upturned
From the civilized to the jungle land
You sent me searching far and I returned
With God - who has given me a guiding hand
In whom I found solace, comfort, and devotion.

CPT McGrath's L Company kicked off an attack on Baesweiler, Germany on 7 Oct 1944. After some initial resistance the Germans abandoned the town and CPT McGrath gathered L Company soldiers and directed them into the town. While accompanying his soldiers CPT McGrath was wounded and died soon after of his wound(s) on 7 Oct 1944.

CPT McGrath would be awarded the Bronze Star awarded for actions on D-Day and a Silver Star for gallantry in attack on Brest. He was repatriated in 1947 and re-interred in Westminster Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

His older brother, Edward, also served as an officer and when they met in France, after D-Day, was serving as a 1LT in the Anti-Aircraft battalion of the 101st Airborne Division. 

SSG Edwin Everett Hill

courtesy of Bessie Savery

SSG Edwin Everett Hill was born 5 Jun 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia to Everett Coyn and Virginia Ann (Woolwine) Hill.  His father worked at a local rayon plant.  On 21 Jul 1940 Edwin married Eva Mae Baker.

Edwin was a PFC in the Roanoke National Guard unit when it was federalized in February 1941.  He attended training with the regiment at Fort Meade, Maryland and Camp Blanding, Florida before shipping out for England in September 1942.  In England he had more training for the amphibious assault on Hitler's "fortress Europe" that was to take place on the Normandy beach code-named "Omaha".  SSG Hill was there on 6 Jun 1944 and was killed in action on that day. 

SSG Hill rests forever in the Normandy American Cemetery. Brother, Garnett Gervesse Hill, a Seaman 2nd Class, was killed12 Dec 1943 in the South Pacific and is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii. Brother, Carl Eugene Hill served in the Army from 1943 to 1946. His wife did not remarry until 1949 but she reportedly kept his memory alive and encouraged family to pray for him. 

MAJ John William Sours

MAJ John William Sours was born on 26 Mar 1902 in Roanoke, Virginia to Julian Donald and Edith Lillian (Kelly) Sours one of 12 children (6 boys, 6 girls).  His father worked as a moulder on the Norfolk Western railroad.

He married Emma Vilanna Cundiff in 1924 and they had 2 sons, John William "Bill" Sours Jr and Ned Leonard Sours.

John had been in the National Guard for many years.  After the Roanoke units were federalized he had few opportunities to see his family   Son Bill was drafted and went to war in the South Pacific with the Marines repairing planes. He learned about his father's death in a Red Cross telegram. 

According to Robert Buckley, even as he was next to the Regiment's commander, MAJ Sours was killed by a machinegun bullet to the head as he debarked from the landing craft on 6 Jun 1944.  He rests forever in the Normandy American Cemetery.

Mrs. Sours looks at a photo of MAJ Sours

After the war, Vilanna died of melanoma in 1947. 

The original graves...

LTC Harold Andrew Cassell

LTC Harold Andrew Cassell was born 18 Apr 1908 in Ceres, Virginia. He was the 6th of 8 children born to James Franklin and his second wife Mary Emily (Spangler) Cassel. His father had 8 children by his first wife as well and supported his large family by farming and blacksmithing in Bland County, Virginia. After 7 years of public school education, Harold left school and went to work, probably to help support his family including his aging father. His father died in March 1930 at the age of 80.

By that time Harold was working at Garst Brothers Dairy in Roanoke, Virginia. Harold married Mary Katherine Goggin on 17 Sep 1930 in Roanoke where they lived. Although he was 21 he was still living in his now widowed mother's household. In order to supplement his income Harold had enlisted in the Virginia Army National Guard on 18 Aug 1925. He rose through the ranks being promoted from PVT to PFC to CPL to SGT to 1SG and then MSG before being commissioned a 2LT on 15 Mar 1938 and being federally recognized at that rank on 28 Jan 1939. He was serving in Service Company 116thh Infantry at that time. The couple had a son in 1940. Harold was now manager of the dairy and doing very well owned the family home at 302 Guilford Avenue which was valued at $4000 and reported a 1939 income of $1540.

2LT Cassell was mobilized with his National Guard unit on 3 Feb 1941 and went with that unit to Fort George Meade, Maryland. He received a reserve commission as LTC on 5 Dec 1943 although he was not promoted to CPT with federal recognition until 18 Apr 1943. He was federally recognized as a LTC on 29 Jun 1950. After having served as regiment executive officer LTC Cassell took command of the 116th in November 1944 before command of the unit was given to LTC Sidney Bingham in early December 1945.

On 6 Jun 1944, D-Day, LTC Cassell was serving as the 116th's Executive Officer. He replaced the wounded LTC Tom Dallas as commander of 1st Battalion 116th Infantry on 5 Aug 1944 near Vire, France. On 10 Nov 1944 he assumed command of the regiment from COL Dwyer who was being transferred. He relinquished command to LTC Sidney Bingham at the beginning of December 1945 but would again command the regiment during its duties in the occupation of Germany after May 1945 and was still commanding the unit when it demobilized at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey in 1946. LTC Cassell was one of he only 50 men who had mobilized with the unit in February 1941 who were still with the regiment 5-years later. LTC Cassell was then assigned to the Fort Leavenworth where he and Mary would have a 2nd child, a daughter, in April 1949. After being reassigned in 1949 the family lived in Anne Arundel, Maryland. As a LTC, Harold was paid about $5600 in 1949. Then he had an assignment in Japan and in the Republic of Korea before returning to Fort Benning and Columbus, Georgia where he commanded the 1st Battalion of the School Brigade at the Infantry School there until 1957. LTC Cassell then served a tour  in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he was Chief of the Tuscaloosa Military Sub-district. He was then assigned as commander of the Western Area Command, an Army Reserve unit. LTC Cassell retired from the Army on 30 Jun 1961 and lived in Columbus, Georgia.

LTC Cassell died 22 Jan 1974 in Columbus, Georgia. He rests forever in the Fort Moore Main Post Cemetery at Fort Benning, Georgia. His awards include the Silver Star, 3 Bronze Stars (BSM with 3 OLC) and the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster.